Tristan Bancks
Tristan Bancks (born 21 December 1974) [1]is a former actor who played the role of "Tug" (Peter) O'Neale from 1992 to 1994. He is now a successful author who has written several books for children and teenagers.
Pre Home And Away career[]
As a teenager Tristan trained at Sydney’s Q Theatre before becoming a regular on Home and Away.
Home And Away 1992-1994[]
Tristan played Tug O'Neale on Home and Away for two years. Tug started out as a bad boy on the series but developed into something of an anti-hero. Tug was a contemporary of the bookish Damian Roberts (Matt Doran) and heart-throb Shane Parrish (Dieter Brummer) and left in 1994.
After Home And Away[]
Tristan moved to London where he worked for four years, writing, researching and presenting television for ITV, BBC, Channel Four and cable. One of the TV shows he presented was the documentary G'Day Summer Bay[2] [3]
Tristan left London in 1999 and returned to Australia. He appeared in Ivan Sen’s Dendy Award-winning films Dust and Beneath Clouds and SBS mini-series Remote Area Nurse. Tristan made a number of short films as writer and director, including adaptations of two award-winning stories – Sarah Armstrong’s The Long Wet and John Campbell’s The New Boots. Another film, Soar, screened at London Film Festival, Clermont-Ferrand, Aspen, Interfilm Berlin and Melbourne International Film Festival. It won awards and commendations at Flickerfest, St Kilda, Sydney’s Dendy Awards and Toronto’s World of Comedy Fest. The film was picked up by Qantas Inflight, the US Sundance Channel, The Movie Network in Australia and Sydney Morning Herald TV. His next short, Change the World in Five Minutes Every Day at School, was funded by SBS and Film Australia for their ‘Change the World in Five Minutes’ initiative. Its aim was to inspire primary school classes all over the country to spend the first five minutes of every day changing the world in some small way.[4]
Tristan is now a full-time children's writer and is active on social media [5] He isn't the only former Home and Away actor to have become a prolific writer. Fellow cast members Judy Nunn and Tempany Deckert have since forged new careers in that field.